The present invention relates to a system for facilitating message data communications. In particular, the invention relates to a system for reliably and swiftly transporting information bi-directionally between remote wireless communications devices connected to mobile networks, and service and application logic hosted at a separate location whilst minimising set up and maintenance overheads.
Currently systems such as Short Message Service (SMS) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) are used for message data communications. However these both have some drawbacks, namely:
SMS is a so-called “store and forward” service and hence can suffer from time delays in delivery depending upon load; consider the load, for instance, on New Year's Eve.
GPRS uses traffic channel resources in the network and hence can suffer time delays if the network has a high traffic load e.g. congestion, etc. GPRS is also inefficient for the transmission of small amounts of data and is less reliable than a signalling channel which, because of the importance of signalling channel data to the network, means that it has a higher probability of successfully being transported on the air interface under poor coverage conditions.
It has previously been proposed, to use Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) as a bearer technology to facilitate the transmission of data from a device to an information subsystem.
Using USSD as a bearer technology is not without complication. The communication must be securely controlled and coordinated to function as a communication method, particularly for telemetry or machine to machine communication technology.
Mobile networks are inherently service providers. Technologies such as SMS and GPRS provide mechanisms to facilitate end to end communication, i.e. the destination is easily identifiable from the individual message. The network operators can securely transfer the data between an originating device and an endpoint. This is not the case for USSD type communications. The destination in USSD messaging is generic for the service. Each message cannot be directed individually.
For USSD to be used as a bearer for machine to machine communications, endpoint operators must design and build individual and bespoke protocols for the machine to machine telemetry. They must design and program a device to work with their own bespoke protocol to send over the USSD bearer. All USSD messages designating that service must then be forwarded to them by the mobile networks.
Further, for an endpoint operator to use USSD as a bearer for machine to machine communications using conventional systems or a standardised messages service and limit the design and rollout of an individual protocol, they must be granted access to a secure portion of the network or access to the data stream for that message service. This is particularly insecure and highly undesirable in a modern business environment where a plurality of endpoint operators would require secure and easy access to the data transmitted from their originating devices.